Mom: (to Ian) That’s right, Ian, kids grow up.

Ian: And parents get more kids?

Pause

Mom: No…Ian, no more kids for your parents…

Enter Morgan fashionably late and looking fabulous.

Morgan: (to anyone as Dad is exiting to get a shower and get dressed for the day) What? No more kids?

Dad: (as he exits) No more brothers or sisters for you and Ian.

Morgan (satisfied with this answer): Oh, okay.

Pause.  Dad continues downstairs.

Morgan (to Mom): Hey, Mom?  How do babies get produced into bellies?

Dad turns the shower on and takes his last nice, long hot shower as the father of a totally innocent little girl.

Finis

Her:  Why is all this laundry sorted out in separate piles?

Me:  Because that’s how you’re supposed to do laundry.

Her:  …  (grumpy face)

This is also after I got home from SETC to find that she had done laundry by just throwing everything into the washer and turning it on.  Also, drying (partially) everything all together, too.

Have I spoiled her so much by doing the laundry that she has totally forgotten all this stuff?  I have actually told her to step away from the laundry and to get out of the kitchen (when I’m cleaning it).  She is spoiled absolutely rotten.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Happy Anniversary, Bekah! I’m glad you have finally reconnected with your high school friends. I know you’re going to have a great time!

Anyway, here’s the reason for this post:

This is my new favorite picture of Bekah.  I know it’s not a recent shot of her, but this picture has meaning that goes much deeper.  First of all, the picture was taking just before she graduated from high school.  She’s sitting in her grandmother’s living room.  That living room now happens to be our living room.  We bought our home from her when she moved to Louisiana a couple of years ago.  Second, Bekah is sitting in a chair that we also inherited as part of the purchase of the home.  That chair now sits in our bedroom reading area.  Third and finally, it’s a beautiful picture of her.

I found this picture while going through some pictures at her parents’ house a couple of months ago.  We scanned them in so she could post a bunch of them on Facebook.  I liked this picture right away just because of her, but when I finally got a chance to look at it, I realized exactly what I was looking at.  The chair she’s sitting in in the picture is in almost the exact same place facing in almost the exact same angle and sitting in the very same room as the chair that I sit in as I type these words.

A whole lot has happened since this photograph was taken.  She met me and, thankfully, fell in love with me.  How I pulled that one over on her, I’ll never know.  We married, moved to Dallas for a while, got me though grad school, had two beautiful children, and have since moved back to where it all began.  This picture for me, represents a very concrete definition of the phrase “full circle.”

Anyway, I’m sentimental and romantic that way and just thought I had to share.

1. You don’t have to travel overnight to have a great vacation.  It’s never too late to drive home to sleep in your own bed.
2. Vacation is most definitely a state of mind.
3. No matter how tired you are, you can always find renewed energy in just seeing the world as your children see it.
4. Planning for a vacation is a lot more fun when it feels like there is no plan.
5. Fish are cool.
6. IMAX 3D movies are cool, too.
7. We are neglecting our history and our traditions for the sake of “progress”.  Pardon me, boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?  I don’t know, I can’t see it for all the shiny new stuff around the river.
8. Don’t wait 15 years before going back to visit the places where you grew up.
9. Make more time for long “lost” friends.
10. If your vacation is to occur during the summer, time must be allowed for jumping in a pool; preferrably one that is not crowded or even private.
11. Brand new movie theatres with 70mm high definition digital projectors and 40 million watt 78 speaker array Dolby THX surround sound don’t have anything on sitting in the front seat of your car watching a great movie through the FM radio with your wife and kids.
12. There are still people in Hollywood who, even when while they are blazing new technological grounds in digital, computer generated animated filmmaking, take the time to not lose sight of the thing that makes all those breakthroughs possible:  The Story.

There might be more later.  Technically speaking, we are still on vacation…